


The beauty of grace is it makes life not fair

by enid_salt



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Gen, casual ableism in dialogue, coming of age fic is a thing right?, slight warnings for:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2034294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enid_salt/pseuds/enid_salt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.</p>
<p>The one high school AU where the teachers are the worst and the grades are the only thing than matters (or so it seems).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The beauty of grace is it makes life not fair

**Author's Note:**

> Not necessarily a warning per se but a heads up: this is based off of some real life things that happened to me and my best friend in high school with some changes in fact and circumstance. The adults here tend to be the worse part - the teenagers are reacting as teenagers will to the situation because at 16, you've literally spent more time in school than you have doing anything else so yeah, it's all A Very Big Deal to them - and this fic has explicit criminal misuse of public/private property and definite abuse of power dynamics between an educator and a minor.
> 
> So if that's gonna bring up some stuff you don't wanna deal with, don't read it. Stay safe, friends.
> 
> *Also, this is un-beta'ed so any mistakes are my own fault and up for public shaming of.

It happened much later than everyone had assumed. 

Most people saw and heard the way they were with each other and guessed they were partners in crime dating back to diaper days. 

But that was wrong. 

Steve Rogers met Bucky Barnes in the homeroom class in 7th grade.

Neither one of them had been particularly popular amongst their class nor memorable save for the fact that Steve was known for having every maladie know to man and putting more effort and work into everything he did which happened to be being the most reputable and honest person of their generation.

To Bucky’s ear, it sounded like he might be the most self-righteous prick out there with a default expression that screamed don’t mess with me to match. He decided to avoid him at all costs in case it wasn’t all typical teenage hyperbole.

There wasn’t much talk of Bucky at all for Steve to pick up on, other than the hushed gossip of the young ladies in their classes assessing his relative attractiveness. So when they had ended up in the same homeroom, he had noted some observations about the boy - he was sharp, winsome, and practical with an ease about him that seemed almost rehearsed - and left him alone. 

Maybe, if things had been different, they would have let those skewed perspectives color what they thought of each other and never gotten close.

But fate intervened when Bucky was kept late in his last class and he was taking the shortcut to his house around the back of the building when he saw it.

Steve was fighting someone bigger and stronger. Rather, Steve was getting the stuffing kicked out of him by someone bigger and stronger. Bucky Barnes was not an idiot. Nor was he an asshole. So he didn’t swoop in and kick the jock strap to the curb - his name might be Hodge or something, he can’t remember - but he pulled him off Steve and stood by the curled up figure with his fists up, ready to even the odds.

“You gotta problem here, kid?”

Bucky shrugged, “Not yet.”

The guy stomped forward with his fist pulled back - too far and too tight - ready to sock one to an eye but Bucky side-stepped it and swung a quick uppercut to the boy’s jaw.

He moaned and groaned and ran away mumbling something that sounded like a vague threat.

Bucky flipped off his turned back and held out a hand for Steve to take and get up. The boy took it and winced as he rose.

Without pause, he spat out, “I had him.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and spoke in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “Sorry.”

Steve paused as he was dusting off his clothes.

“Jerk.”

Bucky turned to him, “You’re a punk.”

Steve set his jaw and lifted his bruised hands in the worst defensive pose Bucky had ever seen.

He laughed in the kid’s face.

“What, don’t think I have it in me to fight you too?"

Bucky shook his head, “Nah, you do. You don’t take hits like the ones you take without being a little bit strong. And a lot stupid.”

He adjusted Steve’s arms and hands and even his stance.

“But if you knew how to fight properly, you wouldn’t have to actually suffer through half of ‘em.”

Steve scoffed, lowering his arms, “Thanks, Dad, you gonna teach me how to throw a punch, too?”

Bucky shrugged, “Well, depends, do you need it? Give me your best shot.”

Steve gaped at him. 

Bucky held out his arms, exposing his torso for a blow, “Let’s see what you got.”

Steve rolled his shoulders back and landed a right hook to Bucky’s gut.

It knocked the air out of him but didn’t put him down completely. He sucked in a breath and then let out as a large guffaw.

“Nope, you’re good.”

In a beat, Steve was crouching over, holding his bruised middle as he cracked up with laughter.  
They were still huddled together, chuckling, when the bully came back with a teacher in tow.

She did not look pleased, standing there with her bag and files in hand, caught in the situation when she should have been headed home.

Bucky reminded himself that he was not dumb or a deserter. He patted Steve’s shoulder and straightened himself up.

“Mr. Hodge here says you boys have been fighting - ganged up on him over here after school.”

The kid was smirking thinking the adult took his word over the obvious visual evidence that Steve took the brunt of the hits in the scuffle. Bucky knew she was waiting to hear Bucky to rat out Hodge and possibly just let it all go under the guise of not wanting to listen to a bunch of hearsay. 

“Oh no, Ms., there’s been an awful misunderstanding.”

He gave his best thousand-watt smile. He knew her - she taught their year’s level of reading courses. She may have known about Steve’s tendency to create tension but she had already spent weeks getting the best of Bucky’s enchanting personality, a secret of weapon of his.

She raised an eyebrow, “Really?”

“Honestly, it’s been nothing but a big accident. My buddy here,” he threw an arm around the boy’s shoulders, “and I were being irresponsible, I admit, by running home to catch a few cartoons before dinner since neither of us got homework. But one of us misstepped and I, clumsy guy, went tumbling and brought him down with me, making it worse. Hodge here walked over to help us up but I must’ve miscalculated because my elbow went flying, hit him in the chin.”

He looked right into Hodge’s eyes, “Didn’t you hear the apology I called after you? I’m real sorry, man.”

The teacher looked to Hodge. He mulled over his options: admit he was fighting first just to try and get Bucky in trouble or take the out and none of the vengence.

“No.”

Satisfied, she waved them off, “With all this settled, I suggest you all head home and find some more worthy things to do with your time.”

Hodge stalked off, still staring daggers at Bucky who turned back to original path home with Steve still under his grip.

“You let him off the hook.”

Bucky looked down at the guy, “Yeah, but a guy like that’s eventually gonna get caught doing something.”

Steve nodded.

A second later, “Where are we even going?”

Bucky stopped, dropping his arm from the other boy’s shoulder.

“. . . I really was headed home. Wanna come over and get yelled at by my ma as she ices your wounds?”

He shuffled on his feet, awaiting the answer.

Steve shrugged, a big smile on his face, “Seems a bit less lonely than going back to my mom, gettin’ scolded by her.”

Bucky grinned, “Totally less lonely. I got three sisters.”

He started to walk again but Steve stopped him and held out his hand, "I'm Steve Rogers."

Bucky took and shook it firm and proper like his dad taught him, "I know. Everyone knows you from what I hear. The name's James Barnes."

Steve smirked, "I know. And more people know you than you'd think."

Bucky laughed, leaning in closer, "Yeah but did you know I go by Bucky?"

"No," Steve tilted his head to the side, "why Bucky?"

Bucky shrugged as he started ambling away again, "I like it better. Comes from my middle name, Buchanan."

He turned on his heel to face Steve.

"No one knows that. So don't spread it around."

Steve laughed and crossed his heart in a silent promise not to as they trotted down the sloping hill of the edge of the campus to the back alley of the bordering residential neighborhood.

The rest was history, they would say. 

Steve impressed Mrs. Barnes with his frank discussion of why he was fighting and his conviction it was the right thing to do. Listening to the full story including Bucky’s involvement, she had her sternest expression on, all frowned at the mouth, but when her eyes met her son’s they softened with just a hint of pride.

Bucky, wheedling the phone from his mother, charmed Mrs. Rogers enough to have Steve stay for dinner. How could she have resisted when this boy even offered to walk her son home right after? She thanked him and he couldn’t understand why she would and just muttered an acknowledgement before passing the receiver back.

If, when the night was over and they arrive at his doorstep, Steve hesitated before holding out a hand to shake and Bucky pulled him for a hug instead; well, that would have been what everyone would have expected.


End file.
